Michael Soren Madsen, actor and poet, was born September 25, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois. The son of Elaine Madsen, Emmy-winning poet, producer and playwright whose work has aired on NBC and PBS, and Calvin Madsen, a retired Chicago fireman. Madsen's mother left a career in corporate business to pursue her writing and filmmaking career. Madsen's paternal grandparents were Danish and his mother has Irish and Native American ancestry. His sisters are Oscar nominated actress Virginia Madsen and writer Cheri, who owns a restaurant with her husband in Genoa City Wisconsin. Madsen's youth was characterized by unfortunate events: at age eleven, his parents divorced, he changed schools several times and served a brief jail sentence. Madsen's acting career started at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, where he served as an apprentice actor under John Malkovich.

Soon after his apprenticeship, he was cast in a small role in his first movie War Games (1983). He moved to Los Angeles and appeared in a series of minor film roles, including playing baseball player Bump Bailey in The Natural, a deranged killer in Kill Me Again (1989), and Susan Sarandon's tough but touching boyfriend "Jimmy" in Thelma & Louise (1991). He played a razor-wielding, sadistic ex-con and jewel thief, "Mr. Blonde", in the film Reservoir Dogs. The film gained attention among film critics and fans, as did Madsen's performance and the brutality of his character. During the scene in Reservoir Dogs where Michael Madsen's character, Mr. Blonde, tortures Officer Nash, actor Kirk Baltz ad-libbed a line about being father of a young child. Madsen, who himself had just become a father, was so upset by this line that he had difficulty finishing the scene. On some copies of the DVD, as Baltz completes the line, a voice can be heard off-screen saying "Oh, no, no..." The ad-lib also compounded his reluctance to do the scene to begin with, due to his aversion to violence. Subsequently, Madsen was cast in a variety of supporting roles in major studio films, including Free Willy, Mulholland Falls, Species, and the critically-acclaimed Donnie Brasco.

Madsen has appeared in several television series, including Vengeance Unlimited and most recently as "Don Everest" in the poker-themed ESPN series Tilt. He appeared in Michael Jackson's 2001 music video, "You Rock My World" and has provided voice work for several video games, including Grand Theft Auto III, True Crime: Streets of L.A., and Driver 3. He provided voice work for the movie of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as Maugrim the wolf, captain of the White Witch's secret police.

Michael appeared in Every Time I Die's music video "Kill The Music" and recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign, encouraging reading of screenplays by Quentin Tarantino.

Personal life:

Madsen's first marriage was to Georganne LaPiere. He remarried Jeannine Bisignano, with whom he had the first two of his five sons, Max and Christian. Since 1996, he has been married to Deanna Morgan. with whom he had Kalvin, Hudson, and Luke. He is also step father to Deanna's son, Cody, whose father is Brian Setzer. Michael currently lives with his family in Malibu.

September 20th, 2007 won "Best Actor" award at the 23rd Annual Boston Film Festival for his role as Sean Kelleher in Strength and Honor.

September 2007 - Was presented with the outstanding achievement award in acting at the 13th annual Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival.

For his past, present and ongoing commitment to independent film, he was presented with the inaugural Rebel Award by good friend/actor Harvey Keitel at Rebelfest 2005, Toronto.

Was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his book "Complete Poetic Works" by Red Hen Press.

 "Burning in Paradise" won the Independent Firecracker Award for Poetry in 1998.